A Georgia Peach: New Wesleyan Science Facility Combines Modern Architecture With Tradition

New Twist on Classical Design

MACON, Ga. — Classical design elements unite modern architecture with tradition at Wesleyan College ‘s newest building, a three-story, 42,000-square-foot science facility.

The first academic building constructed at Wesleyan in more than 40 years, the $12.5 million Munroe Science Center houses modern research facilities and mechanical systems in a building designed to resemble classical Georgian architecture, the college’s signature look.

The center is home to the college’s biology and chemistry departments and some psychology department facilities. Classrooms, teaching and research laboratories, and office space fill two two-story wings, which are divided by a central gathering space for students, faculty and visitors. The third floor contains a rooftop greenhouse, an astronomy platform and an enclosed mechanical penthouse.

School officials are particularly enthusiastic about the 11 new teaching labs inside Munroe, which combine space for both traditional lectures and hands-on lab exercises. Several new features are available to faculty and students, such as a built-in deionized water system and an environmental room, as well as the greenhouse and astronomy deck.

Classical Design, Modern Budget

Featuring brick and cast stone cladding, the building’s exterior is rich with color and detail. Flemish bond and basket weave brickwork patterns lend depth and texture to the façade, while the red of the brick contrasts vividly with the white trim of the windows, belt courses and cornices.

Classical design elements, including columns and arches, define the north-south orientation of the building. Six Doric-style columns mark its front entrance on the north façade, which faces the main road leading into the city of Macon . Three arches define the entrance on the south façade, which faces the campus quad, similar to other campus buildings.

Creating a large, Georgian-style building on a limited budget was a challenge to Atlanta architectural firm Lord, Aeck & Sargent, which worked in conjunction with Dunwody-Beeland Architects, of Macon .

It was important to Wesleyan officials that the new center fit in with the older buildings on campus, which required the team to use classical materials and a high-level of detail. Architects balanced the cost of materials with efficient mechanical systems, allowing the exterior decoration to remain within budget.

When possible, the project team utilized locally crafted materials and native plants to reduce project costs and the building’s ecological footprint. Wesleyan Brick, a locally produced material, was incorporated into the exterior, and native plants were used for outdoor landscaping. Inside the center, energy- and water-saving systems and fixtures, such as occupancy sensors and waterless urinals, were installed to reduce operating costs.

Trick of the Eye

Adhering to the principles of proportion and balance, hallmarks of classical Georgian architecture, presented further challenges for the project team. Maintaining the proper building proportions was difficult with the Munroe Center as the laboratories inside the facility have higher floor-to-floor ratios than traditional rooms.

“We had to be sure that the rhythm of the façade elements — the windows, stone accents, belt courses around the building and cornices — were all balanced and in proportion to each other and to the whole façade,” says Helen Crawford, senior project architect/designer/manager with Lord, Aeck & Sargent.

In addition to maintaining Wesleyan’s traditional architectural style, the project team also had to make the new building fit in with the school’s master plan, which called for a chapel to serve as the campus centerpiece. Located between Tate Hall and Taylor Hall, Munroe fills the space once reserved for the chapel, which was never built.

“The new science building has a larger footprint and a longer façade than the proposed chapel,” Crawford says. “So we considered two things in our design that allowed us to be in keeping with the master plan’s intent to provide a dynamic campus centerpiece, while ensuring that we retained the individual character of Tate and Taylor hall.”

To downplay any asymmetry caused by the new building, architects used a central roof element across the middle body of the facility to draw the viewer’s eye to the porch and columns on the north façade and to the center of the building and the site, Crawford says. This technique is reinforced by the placement of two vertical brick chimneys on the roof to conceal the laboratory fume hood exhaust.

The overall length of the Munroe Center ‘s façade is broken up by holding the roof back at the end portions of the building, allowing the eye to rest and giving some breathing room between the roof lines of the new building and the adjacent buildings. Vertical stair towers act as bookends to the facility and purposely bring the eye back to the front of the site.